Dear friends,Hope you are doing well. The mother nature has been more than good in having given weather with some pleasant and rainy days this past week. It looked as if we were already in winter. I can imagine you are getting ready for that too in a few days which will be here before you know it.This month of October is the month of ‘Respect for Life’. This is a month when we need to think about respecting the life of human beings. This is in a special reference to unborn children. This would also include the lives of the born and grown-ups. The very basic need for this month of Respect for Life came about because, we as a nation or community of human beings have lost the sense of the value of life, both born and unborn. The grown-up people at least have some power and little strength to fight for their right to life. The unborn ones have no power nor strength to fight for their right to life. That is why the born people have the responsibility to fight for those unborn innocents.First of all, the act of abortion is a nasty thing. Not even animals kill their babies for any reason. They would never do it, though we consider them little lower than human beings saying that they have no reasoning capacity. We the human being who claim to have reasoning power and the sixth sense, have become a far less rational people than animals in this regard, that is in killing the unborn babies. There is no any valid reasoning for killing or taking away the life of any unborn baby. This is for two reasons: one is we are not the author of that life and so we have no right over any life. The second is as a normal norm, if you need to fight against anybody, that ‘anybody’ should be your equal. And if you fight against anybody weaker than you it is being coward. We are cowardly most of the times.It is really exasperating at times, when we are not ready to love and respect the unborn babies, while we spend a lot money, energy and time to love and take care of the pets that we have (I am not against pets though). Are these pets more valuable than the unborn babies, who might end up being the future architects of the society that would make the society a better one? No. Not at all. Because it is only the human being, the only creature on the earth that was created in the image and the likeness of God. So, we have all the more responsibility to take care of the lives of the unborn innocents. We do not realize the gravity of that responsibility of taking better care of the unborn.Another thing is that if I advocate killing those babies, logically and rationally, I do not deserve a life myself. Because I do not know the value of life. And if I do not count the life of another human being, I should not expect my life be valued any better than the lives of those unborn. This is the just way to deal with it. Use the same rod for you that you use to measure others. If the life of another person is not worth celebrating, neither your life is any better. So, justly looking at the issue, if I deserve to own and live my life, I am bound to accept the fact that the other person, especially the unborn babies too have the right to own and live the life given to them. After all these, it comes to how I value my life. If I respect and celebrate my life, it is deserving and worthy only as long as I respect and celebrate the life of others too, especially the unborn babies.Let us keep the unborn babies in our prayers. Because our God is the God of the living and not of the dead. (Luke: 20:38)God bless you all with healthy and longer life.Sincerely yours in Christ Jesus, Fr. A. Antony

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Pastor's ColumnPosted here is the weekly column featured in the bulletin of Saint Mary, Saint Michael & Saint Kilian parishes.